Digital BW, The Print

This is cross posted on the archival color list:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/archivalcolor

Just received this hot off the press information on ImagePrint 4 from John
Pannozzo, the President of Colorbyte.  We had a long conversation last week
discussing his product and its potential to contribute to both the quad
printing market as well as for supporting 3rd party color inkjet printing.
The short version is that ImagePrint 4 is available for both Windows and the
Mac, although I get the impression that the mac product is still in its
final stages of tweaking.  The mac product is currently a "classic"
application, however, he was hoping to have a native product out this
summer.  It supports layout of images, multiple profiles during a single job
and apparently has a dither pattern that is better than the Epson drivers.
As it stands ImagePrint currently supports the following Quad ink sets:
Lyson Quad Black, Cone Piezography, and MIS Full Spectrum and VM ink sets
for the Epson 1270, 1280, 1290, 7000 and 9000 series printers and also
supports Epson OEM inks for color applications.  When I spoke with him last
week he suggested that work was still in progress for the MIS VM inks...but
this communication certainly suggests that they are ready.  Perhaps the most
interesting quad capability is for MIS VM...where you will not have to use
Paul's Curves.  Instead you will simply edit your file in grayscale and then
use a slider in Imageprint to determine what tonality you want for the
print.  The system is supposed to work with either the Traditional VM set or
the Sepia set...just as Paul's curves do.  I believe that the 7000 and 9000
products are farther along than the desktop versions of the software...but
John suggested that the mac 1270 version (which is the last to be completed)
would be final in about another 2-3 weeks.

Perhaps the most disappointing news was that only Epson OEM inks are
supported at this time in the color arena.  Unlike some other RIPS,
Imageprint does not give you control over ink flow.  However, colorbyte
(like Epson or Cone in Piezo) has control over ink delivery.  They have
optimized this for the ink sets that they support.  They can, in principle
do this for other 3rd party color ink sets (like Gen4, Indelibles, MIS
perpetuals) but they have not done this at this point.  When speaking with
John, I stressed that this would be an enormous help, particularly with the
Indelibles and MIS Perpetuals, where the Epson settings do not work well...
particularly for the black ink which is decidedly nonlinear above about 85%.
He sounded interested...and if I was a betting man...I'd say we will see
support for the MIS Perpetuals (which in my experience would also work for
the Indelibles) in the future.  In order to support an ink set they get it
in house and actually run it in their printers.  Once the ink is
linearized...thy can then build individual paper profiles using their
software from targets that customers print...I believe that this is what
Michael Kravit has recently done for the 7000 with the MIS FS inks.

So that said...here is the blurb directly from John...unedited...I don't
know anything more about this product than what I have said above.  I think
Michael Kravit is currently our resident imageprint expert.  John is also
very friendly...and you could contact him via phone or email for more
info...but he won't be participating directly on the list due to time
constraints.


Robert
-------------

ImagePrint has quickly become the standard for producing photographic
quality output from color inkjet printers. By popular demand, ColorByte
Software brings the same high standard of quality to Quadtone printing.

How did we do it? We started where we always do, by creating our own
proprietary profiler ­ this time specifically for grayscale. Using a simple
monochromatic target we can profile paper and Quad Black ink set
combinations in an ICC workflow that allows accurate tone reproduction in
black and white printing. Because ImagePrint is compliant with ICC workflow,
you can print using the same working space as in PhotoShop. This ability to
³proof² through PhotoShop means that what you see on the screen is what
you¹ll get off of the printer.  Finally we add a grayscale ICC setup feature
that works just like our color ICC setup. It allows users to imbed the
source profile in a single or multi-channel grayscale image or to use a
default source space created by ImagePrint.

Why choose ImagePrint for Quadtone Printing? Other software products on the
market limit you to one particular Quad Black ink set. ImagePrint gives you
the flexibility to use the ink set that's right for you. Best of all, if
your needs change and you decide to add color inks to your printing
environment you won¹t have to invest in another software package - you'll
already be using the industry¹s best!  Photo-quality black and white prints
from your Quad Black inks PLUS the best color engine in the business.

The best quality black and white prints from the most popular Quad Black ink
sets and printer combinations on the market*. The question is why would you
use anything else? 

* ImagePrint currently supports Lyson Quad Black, Cone Piezography, and
MIS Full Spectrum and VM ink sets for the Epson 1270, 1280, 1290, 7000 and
9000 series printers.

CONTACT INFORMATION - John Pannozzo: johnp@...